Redacted to protect the identities of living persons, probably – but that’s still much better than nothing.

And I don’t see why it would be necessary for LE to close the book completely on the case before releasing the documents in question.

Not releasing information relevant to an ongoing investigation is a policy (and in most cases a necessary one), as I take it – it’s not the law. If they wanted to release it, surely they could – as a means to generate…something: Tips, contributions from amateurs, anything really – a last effort to clear it up, and a realistic measure at that (they won’t form a well funded task force at this point, so in reality these documents are at the disposal of one guy, who may or may not be very dedicated, and who may or may not see the true significance of connections and leads that went dead decades ago).

All I can say is…it would make little sense to hand over everything Zodiac researchers want, only to compromise the case if and when they decide to reopen it.

Imagine: all jurisdictions decide to close to the case. Then Morf or Mike or Tom sling out a troop of FOIAs. Now the Internet is pretty much privy to all of the investigators’ notes, their details, their POIs and suspects. Later, a few years down the road, some jurisdiction wishes to reopen the case based on new information. Unfortunately, much of the old information regarding the case is now public knowledge, which could make building a case more difficult.

I suspect by the time the case is fully and forever closed, perhaps a few decades from now, and FOIAs are successful, much of the original pertinent documentation will be lost or destroyed, and it’ll be far too late to make much sense of anything. More than likely, the release of such fragmentary information will do nothing but further muddle our perspective and confuse what is already a very confusing case, creating hundreds if not thousands of new "persons of interest" and a bajillion new "theories".

I’m just not expecting FOIAs to produce the long-fabled pot of gold at the rainbow’s end, although that may be our last best bet, which is to say, barring an outlier miracle, this case is pretty much one for the (truly) unsolved crime anthologies, along with the servant girl annihilator, the axeman of New Orleans and The Texarkana Phantom.

"Sometimes "negativity" is just unwanted truth.".

I think at this point the mish-mash of Zodiac "stuff" wouldn’t convict someone anyway. If anything is found by amateurs, it will take the hard stuff via professionals to truly close the case.

In all seriousness, has anyone, in twenty years found anything that wasn’t already known?

I mean, aside from naming random people The Zodiac based on how closely they resemble the PH sketch?

Anything at all? Pretty sure Ed Neil and Tom Voigt didn’t discover anything truly new either.

So yeah, I’d agree with ya’. No chance amateur net-sleuths are going to crack the case this side of forever, but it sure is a "fun" game to play, I guess.

Depends what you mean by "new".

What has been discovered are IN the reports and the released material, mainly – but that’s no argument against releasing said material. Have amateurs made connections and reached conclusions which are valid and which LE at the time when the case was under real investigation (it hasn’t been for some time – it being "open" means very little, as anyone can imagine) did NOT make? Certainly. Frequently. Has it been grand and groundbreaking discoveries? Not really – but it’s been more than the official investigation has yielded in the last couple of decades.

Who is more likely to discover something in the available documents/reports/evidence – if there is anything to be discovered:

a) A cold-case investigator who has tons of other things to attend to – and who may not be all that familiar with the case to begin with?

b) Or an amateur who has spent years researching the case, and who IS familiar with it in all its aspects? No, strike that – not ONE amateur, but a whole bunch of them, some of whom are – well – nutcases, or idiots, but MANY of whom are actually pretty intelligent people.

By new I mean…new. Not something in the reports, not some old suspect dug up, like Ross Sullivan, not ALA’s box of recipes.

Something that no one knew thirty years ago, or twenty, or ten. Something that would make Graysmith go "hmmmmm".

Have amateurs made connections and reached conclusions which are valid and which LE at the time when the case was under real investigation (it hasn’t been for some time – it being "open" means very little, as anyone can imagine) did NOT make? Certainly. Frequently. Has it been grand and groundbreaking discoveries? Not really – but it’s been more than the official investigation has yielded in the last couple of decades.

As in? What real and substantive connections, in all seriousness, has one amateur made that has advanced anyone’s core understanding of the case? Because I’ve been following this whole Zodiac business since the early Oughties, and though interesting tidbits have been revealed from time to time, such as Voigt’s postcards of Vallejo and the comic book that may inspired the Halloween card, I’ve not seen anything that has actually advanced my understanding of the case. Nothing.

Today we basically know no more than Robert Graysmith knew back in 1986, aside from the fact that Arthur Lee Allen was not The Zodiac.

I mean, my god, you guys are still arguing over whether or not the desk poem was written by The Zodiac or some other guy. The only new thing there is people trying to make RH look like RS any way they can.

Anyway, as I said, I don’t think you’re going to see the investigator’s files any time soon, and if and when you do they’ll be fragmentary and redacted, and the only thing their release will do is cause a thousand people to create a thousand new theories and "persons of interest".

Just look at the mess amateurs have made of Jack the Ripper. Now imagine the same situation applied to The Zodiac. We already have people laboring to make the Hardens into the killer.

Just wait till Patricia Cornwell decides to write a book based on that theory…

It’s a fascinating case, or else wouldn’t be here, but ultimately fruitless. Or as Gabriel Shear said in Swordfish: "like masturbation without the payoff".

So, if I understand you right, what you’re saying is essentially that we’re just a bunch of ghouls who enjoy a bit of true crime? Or rather, we’re ghouls at best – at worst we’re actually plain deluded.

Well, there’s some truth to that – sadly enough.

Still, it’s an extremely pessimistic take on the matter. Have amateurs – studying material like, say, the FBI files – added nothing to our understanding of the case? And are their efforts in making this material available in the first place worthless?

Graysmith? Yes, he’s a case in point, indeed. If it weren’t for the amateurs, there would have been zero criticism of his numerous mistakes, inaccuracies and instances of downright truth bending.

Besides, what are we actually debating here? The possibility of solving the case – as such? Or the possibility of the unreleased material containing something important?

If you’re saying that it’s unlikely that an amateur sleuth will crack the Z case if she gets her hands on the unreleased material – then I agree. It’s damn unlikely. But it’s not impossible.

If you’re saying that it would be positively detrimental to the – actual – investigation if this material were to be released into the hands of amateurs, then I question that stance. Very much so. What actual investigation is there? It’s a cold – getting colder every minute – case. It’s not unreasonable to surmise that by now the only people who really care about solving it – are amateurs, flawed as their efforts may be.

So, if I understand you right, what you’re saying is essentially that we’re just a bunch of ghouls who enjoy a bit of true crime? Or rather, we’re ghouls at best – at worst we’re actually plain deluded.

At no point did I say that everyone interested in this case is a ghoul, although many are, and many others are just annoying weirdos.

I myself find the case interesting because one, it’s deeply intellectually fascinating, and two, it sure would be nice to at least name the man who killed five people and walked away a free man.

That confluence of deep mystery and denied justice is, for me, the draw. That and the whole thing reads like an Agatha Christie novel, only far more convoluted and sinister.

Still, it’s an extremely pessimistic take on the matter. Have amateurs – studying material like, say, the FBI files – added nothing to our understanding of the case? And are their efforts in making this material available in the first place worthless? I don’t think so. Besides, what are we actually debating here? The possibility of solving the case – as such? Or the possibility of the unreleased material containing something important?

I don’t think we’re debating much. I’m just saying….let’s imagine that these files are released tomorrow. Okay, now there are thousands of pages of "new" information. Now, do you actually trust "certain people" to not make a bigger mess of the case? How many more "amateur sleuths" do we need recklessly treading ramshackle over the particulars and facts of the official investigation?

People have tried to make everyone, everyone, in the case files into the Zodiac, including Hartnell, the Hardens, James Owen, and Ferrin’s husband. Whats next?

Have you ever heard of Oak Island? It’s a small island in Canada that is rumored to harbor gold down a deep ventricular hole. For centuries now, everyone and their grandmother have tried to locate the gold. Unfortunately, where there was once a thick, primeval forest of bountiful trees, this, today is all that’s left, thanks to hundreds of people recklessly running amok:

That’s what people do to things when they think there’s buried treasure afoot, and the identity of The Zodiac is not much different.

If you’re saying that it’s unlikely that an amateur sleuth will crack the Z case if she gets her hands on the unreleased material – then I agree. It’s damn unlikely. But it’s not impossible.

I’d say it’s unlikely, but I’d say it’s more likely than now. I’d also say it’s almost as likely no one will get any closer to a solution than now, and perhaps even farther because there will then be a torrent of new "suspects" and "theories".

What should happen, if one should ever acquire those documents via a FOIA, is that they should be sent to a third-party private investigatory team. Professionals. People trained and possessing experience in the appropriate fields. Let them dig through the documents, using fresh, unbiased and curious eyes. No ghouls, no nutjobs, no weirdos. No one trying to square the radian with the third letter from the third paragraph of the Little List letter.

Naturally one would have to pay for such a thing, but perhaps Morf or Mike or Tom could do a donation run, or use GoFundMe.

If you’re saying that it would be positively detrimental to the – actual – investigation if this material were to be released into the hands of amateurs, then I question that stance. Very much so. What actual investigation is there? It’s a cold – getting colder every minute – case. It’s not unreasonable to surmise that by now the only people who really care about solving it – are amateurs, flawed as their efforts may be.

I’m not saying I’m absolutely positive the release of any and all documents would be detrimental, per se, but I am saying that I have little faith that the sort of people who fancy themselves detectives and Internet sleuths would not run roughshod over the details of the released documents and would not use that information to fuel any and every bizarre theory conceivable.

Just look at what we have with a handful of non-suspects. Can you even begin to imagine what people would do if we had…2500? I cannot, and it’s not because I lack the prerequisite imagination, it’s because I know all too well people with an eye to dime-novel narratives and the patently lurid don’t seem to view the world the same way as trained investigators, who are meat and potato people. By that I mean…show a bloody knife to a trained, professional detective and he’ll see an angry husband or boyfriend. Show it to the average Internet sleuth and they’ll see some monstrous, snarling Stephen King construct carrying a gym bag of gristled, bristling implements.

All I’m saying is that….I have little faith the people of the Internet, no matter how otherwise intelligent or well-meaning, wouldn’t make a total mess of more information, simply because, imo, most of them do not seem terribly capable of sensibly handling the dearth of currently-available facts without resorting to numerology and Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon deductions.

These are fair points – and I share much of your skepticism regarding a certain brand of online sleuth.

Oak Island! Oh yes. But we’re pretty much in Oak Island territory already. I’m not sure that some additional (and possibly – possibly, I says, valuable) reports and documents will make that much of a difference with regard to the crackpot situation.

It’s really a question of – can it get any worse than it already is (look at the amount of garbage people have published to date)? And – might it not be worth a shot given that it is so very, very unlikely that the cops will solve this case anyway?

The PI idea is a good one – and I for one would gladly contribute to such an effort if it were orchestrated by good people.

I could read what you both share all day long…

On that note, even with all the quacks, info could come to light via an amateur which sheds light through a newly opened door. While it may already be in a police reports, etc., it could be thanks to an amateur that links are found that LE missed. After all, even the cops get a lot of their tips from citizens.